R -- What Works Clearinghouse

The United States Department of Education seeks capability statements from small businesses, as well as comments from all interested parties, on the proposed acquisition synopsized below and fully outlined in the attached draft SOW (follow the "Draft Statement of Work 01" link above). The Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) in the U.S. Department of Education expects to request proposals for the development and maintenance of the What Works Clearinghouse. The Clearinghouse will document what works in education in multiple topic areas, providing a national registry of educational interventions. More specifically, it will be an easily accessible and searchable, web-based online database of products, programs, and practices that are claimed to enhance student academic outcomes. Claims of effectiveness will be assessed with respect to the quality, quantity, and relevance of evidence, as well as the magnitude of effects of interventions--as determined through reviews of research. It will also include a registry of evaluators who are prepared to conduct evaluation studies that will meet high quality standards as determined by the Clearinghouse. A core expectation of the Department is that the interventions in the registry can be successfully adopted by a significant number of educational practitioners throughout the nation. Therefore the system designed under the contract must ensure that listings in the registry have high potential for transportability to many other settings. The Department anticipates that major tasks will include: 1) developing and implementing a communication and collaboration strategy; 2) creating and supporting an expert technical advisory group to give feedback to the contractor; 3) developing standards and criteria for conducting study reviews and preparing evidence reports; 4) creating and maintaining a registry of evaluators committed to the Clearinghouse standards and criteria; 5) identifying topic areas for broader evidence-based research reviews, and for test instrument reviews (optional); 6) conducting reviews of effectiveness studies and preparing evidence reports; 7) conducting special "fast track" reviews and syntheses (optional); 8) developing and supporting a web-based online system and databases. THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION FOR PROPOSALS. The Department is placing this notice to solicit questions and comments and begin an exchange of information with the public in order to release the best possible solicitation. All interested parties should read the draft SOW by following the "Draft Statement of Work 01" link above. Capability statements from small businesses, as well as comments from all interested parties, should be submitted to Nicole Ragno, Contract Specialist, at [email protected] by 12:00 pm on Thursday, February 7, 2002.